City of Austin Council Message Board

Council:

Thanks for your work on selecting Austin's next City Manager. I appreciate how hard everyone has worked.

I give great thanks to both of our excellent candidates. I know this has been a daunting process, but they've demonstrated their professionalism. Austin would do well with either person.

The subcommittee that we originally started with to help pick the search firm and provide input to the firm (the Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members Ellis, Vela and Fuentes and me) recommends that we post a council action for April 4, 2024, to authorize negotiation of an employment agreement and/or to authorize execution of an employment agreement with T.C. Broadnax. This posting will also be for potential passage of an ordinance to employ T.C. Broadnax as Austin City Manager.

Again, I know we are all deeply thankful to Sara Hensley for putting herself on the line and offering to be our City Manager.

Please let me know if you have any questions or thoughts.

Thank you.

Kirk

On behalf of Mayor Watson

Thank you, Mayor Watson, for sharing this public update. I am looking forward to working with our next City Manager, T.C. Broadnax, as we approach the challenges and opportunities our City presents.

I would like to thank Sara Hensley for joining us for this lengthy and enlightening interview process, and I would also like to thank my colleagues for their rigorous discussion and debate as we all shared our visions for the future of the city.

Best
Zo

I want to congratulate TC Broadnax on his selection and really look forward to getting to work together to not just solve the pressing challenges facing Austin, but build on all the areas that already make this such a great place to live.

I also would like to thank Sara Hensley for putting herself forward and being so willing to serve this City we all love.

Ryan

Felicidades and welcome to our next city manager, T.C. Broadnax. I’m looking forward to the challenges, collaboration and service that provide us with nothing but opportunity to make our city a welcoming place for all.

Huge propers and thanks to Sara Hensley for being a candidate and for considering to coming back to serve her city.

- Council Member José Velásquez

Colleagues, it was important to me to have a thoughtful, inclusive process with plenty of opportunity for City staff and public input, and I’m grateful to the two final candidates - TC Broadnax and Sara Hensley - for their professionalism and clear passion to serve Austinites. Both interviewed and presented exceedingly well. The scope of TC's experience tipped the balance for me: he has not only managed cities of our size and complexity, he has specifically demonstrated the ability to work through difficult controversies. His vision for public service and his experience - that testing - will help Austin meet our challenges now and into the future. I thank Sara for her service to Austin and for putting herself forward for the city manager role. She is a friend to me, and our city, and Denton is fortunate to have her continuing leadership.

Leslie

Colleagues,

I couldn't agree more with your sentiments. The final two candidates were so impressive that we had a difficult time in our deliberations.
I applaud both T.C. Broadnax and Sara Hensley for their tenacity through the long process and their respective commitment to service. In this decision, I ultimately landed on the candidate who had the most experience in this specific role and in a city of comparable size with similar challenges. He spoke candidly and with a great deal of knowledge about transit and mobility and how transit related construction needs to be planned to have the least impact on individuals and businesses with comprehensive plans for mitigation. His perspective on the pervasive and worldwide challenge of homelessness and potential solutions, while recognizing barriers, was insightful and optimistic. I also appreciated his deep commitment to youth empowerment and development- most especially at-risk youth, as well as the importance of diversion and re- entry efforts for people with criminal justice involvement. His responses to my questions around housing, community land trusts and the importance of pairing the CLT's with land banking, gentrification interruption and pre-empting development with simplified processes and solid land use policies and protections to create and maintain perpetual affordability in neighborhoods on the precipice of being developed were thoughtful and knowledgeable. Overall, I feel very confident that we made the best decision for my hometown, the great city of Austin, Texas and welcome our new City Manager, T.C. Broadnax to the team. He's got some exciting and hard work ahead and I'm convinced he's prepared.

With kind regards,
NHM